House Republicans undertake Yucca Mountain witch hunt

As reported by the Las Vegas Review Journal, a witch hunt led by U.S. House of Representatives Energy and Commerce Committee chairman Fred Upton (Republican-Michigan), who has three atomic reactors in his district, and Energy and Economy Subcommittee chairman John Shimkus (Republican-Illinois), who has a total of 14 atomic reactors in his state (11 still operating, 3 permanently shut down), included a recent grilling of U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission chairman Greg Jazcko.  The Republican witch hunt is a bid to resurrect the proposed Yucca Mountain dumpsite for high-level radioactive waste in Nevada. President Obama and Energy Secretary Chu zeroed out funding for the proposal in early 2010, and have also moved to withdraw the Dept. of Energys' construction and operations application from the NRC license proceeding. Congressman Upton has long championed the Yucca dump, including sponsoring several incarnations of the Mobile Chernobyl bill as far back as 1995. Beyond Nuclear has prepared a summary and full length exposé on Upton's pro-nuclear policies, as well as documentation on the sources of nuclear industry campaign cash he has received from political action committees and individuals associated with the nuclear power industry. Opening the Yucca dump has been among the nuclear power industry's highest priorities for a generation.

Congressional tour of closed Yucca site costs taxpayers $15,000

As reported by the Las Vegas Review Journal, on the 25th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe, three congressional proponents of the cancelled Yucca Mountain dumpsite for high-level radioactive waste decided to take a 30 yard stroll down a tunnel, at a cost of $15,000 to U.S. taxpayers. The visit, intended to help resurrect the project, lasted less than an hour. If revived and taken full scale, the pricetag for the Yucca Mountain dump's construction and operation would top $100 billion, according to the Dept. of Energy. Since the 1980s, over $8 billion of ratepayer money, and more than $3 billion of taxpayer money, has been wasted at the controversial hole in the Nevada desert. Republican U.S. Representative John Shimkus, chair of the subcommittee on energy and the economy, led the tour. He hales from Illinois, the state with more high-level radioactive waste than any other. (Another ironic Yucca-Chernobyl connection -- President Clinton in 2000 vetoed a congressional attempt to open the dump, dubbed the Mobile Chernobyl bill, on the 14th anniversary of the Chernobyl nuclear catastrophe, almost to the exact minute of the explosion.) An archive of Yucca news coverage dating back to 2002 can be viewed at the website of the Las Vegas Review Journal.